4 layer detected by digikey red on a 2 layer board

Design Tools and Resources DKRed and PCB Builder
1

Hi

This has probably been asked before, but I am not familiar with the forum search format.

After uploading the gerber files I noticed a few things.

  1. the board is panelized the preview and measurement only shows a single unit. Is that just the preview?
  2. the board is a 2 layer board, but the PCB builder is saying 4 layer board.

Is there a way to verify what exactly I will be getting if I order my PCB from digikey red?

regards
fernan

2

You can cross-check with another gerber file viewer.

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3

It would probably be of use to give which CAD system you use. There was a thread about a two layer board being interpreted as 4 layer and the admin had PM’ed the OP to share his files to be used in debug. I’m not sure how/if this was resolved.

I have never used panels or arrays with DKRed. I just use singles as Vscoring is not supported.

I work in Eagle7 and my only issue has been with the graphical representation of the excellon drill file. Number of decimal places not scaled properly. Looks wonky on screen but boards were perfect.

Hope that helps

4

thanks guys

Additional info. I am using Altium 23.5.1. This board I ordered from another vendor with no issues raised and i received and assembled them with no problem. I wanted to order a new batch and wanted to see if digikey red would either be cheaper or faster.

regards
fernan

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5

As an independent Gerber review, I use GERBV. It also does not auto-scale my Eagle generated excellon drill file so I have to manually set number of places.
http://gerbv.geda-project.org/

6

Same issue. Altium Designer 20.1.14
Root cause: Altium outputs contact pads for SMT components as a separate file, although it is the same “top” or “bottom” copper. DK Red file processor incorrectly assumes these files are separate layers, making fake 4-layer board out of 2-layer design.

Workaround: delete both top and bottom bad files from the gerbers zip file; i.e. xxx_Pads_Top.gbr and xxx_Pads_Bot.gbr should NOT be submitted.

Cheers!

7

I have same issue. My design is 2 layer but DK RED recognize it as 4 Layer. Can someone help me? I do not have the extra bad file that Kostya17 mentioned.

8

did you fix it?

9

No, i did not. I later found that dk red is not adequate for purpose, so did not pursue the issue further.

10

Thank you for your inquiry.

If you could direct message me with your ZIP file I can look into this further.

11

With your provided file I was able to replicate your error and am posting here in case others may benefit.

Initial upload the PCB Builder tool is detecting silkscreen_top.gbr and assigning it as Top Copper layer, which creates 3 copper layers. Manually assigning this layer to Top Silkscreen does not fix issue and board is still upgraded to 4 layer board.

I did a workaround by renaming layer silkscreen_top.gbr to silk.gbr then manually assigning silk.gbr to Top Silkscreen layer, which now is correctly assigning PCB to 2 layer board.

We recognize this is an issue and are putting efforts into fixing this.

12

This worked! Definitely uncheck/delete the “Pads” files and make sure DKRed only has 1 top copper and 1 bottom copper labeled, otherwise it thinks they are multiple layers. Also rename the silkscreen files. Altium calls them “Filname_Overlay_Top” and “Filename_Overlay_Bot”. Rename them to “Filename_Top_Silkscreen” and “Filename_Bottom_Silkscreen”. This way DKRed will not only stop labeling them as copper layers, but it will also correctly identify them as the appropriate silkscreen layers. I use GerberX2’s.

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